I bought a house in 1991 with oak floors. I liked that feature, and this was before HGTV. I never found wood to feel cold, and this in New England. Mother came to see the house i was buying, and the first thing she said was, "It's going to cost a fortune to install wall to wall carpeting." I wondered why I'd want that -- area rugs are fine.

I think wood and tile are easier to keep clean. Yes, tile is cold, and here in New England, I'd only want that in baths and kitchens.

When I lived in Ohio every roof color I specified was dark gray, charcoal, black. If anybody remembers the old HGTV Color forum, I answered every roof question with dark gray, charcoal or black. I didn't realize I was doing that until someone asked me if roof shingles didn't come in any other colors where I live. :-D.

Then we started moving around the U.S. We've lived temporarily in several places, permanent relos to Texas and Arizona. Once I got out of the Midwest, I realized how narrow my thinking had been.

For example, for the longest time I thought Hunter Douglas Silhouettes were 'the' perfect window treatments. They were so expensive it took me two years to get them installed in every window in our house in Ohio but that's what I had to have.

Now, living in AZ, I wouldn't have them in this house even if someone gave them to me. From personal experience I would say definitely yes, color and design choices are regional for several reasons.

Our house was built in 1964 and has original wood floors throughout, even in the closets. The only rooms with tile were the bathrooms and the kitchen. We changed the kitchen floor to match the oak floors in the rest of the house. It's quite common in New England and it certainly is not new here. I don't find them cold at all and really enjoy the beauty of area rugs.

I don't think wood flooring has ever bend trendy, it's just one of the flooring choices available. Some people don't just not like carpet in their own homes, they hate it. I am in this group. I'd rather have, and have always had, wood floors and nice rugs. We went from wood in the kitchen (lived there 20+ years) to stone flooring in current house (12+ yrs), and going back to wood in house we are currently remodeling. Tile is probably more practical (dogs, cats, DH's slight coffee spills) but it is hard on my feet during holiday cooking marathons.

How funny, Lori. The house we are remodeling was built in 1985/86. All rooms have HUGE windows. Three have 4" wood shutters, but the rest have Hunter Douglas Silhouettes. They might have been expensive, but have held up well (until the last few years). Now they are easily torn and some having cord issues.

My parents built the home I grew up in in 1968 and it had wood floors throughout, with the exception of the entry and basement, which were tile.

Regarding Hunter Douglas Silhouettes, they are expensive and beautiful, but not a great choice if you have cats. Though my cats had a great time poking huge holes in them, so they did not quibble with my choice.

I think it's regional and socioeconomic.

I would say of new construction in my area at the lower end of new construction it's laminate or prefinished hardwood in the living areas, ceramic or vinyl in the kitchen, ceramic in the bath and wall-to-wall carpet upstairs. (Urban and suburban).

In the middle of the new construction market, it's prefinished floors throughout, including the kitchen, ceramic tile in the bathrooms. Maybe some of the bedrooms have wood floors. maybe some of them have carpet.

At the upper end of the new construction it tends to be site finished hardwood floors throughout, ceramic tile in the bathroms, and you start to get back into wall to wall carpet in the bedrooms and tailored runners on the hardwood stairs.

I know someone who works in a fabric/carpet/wallpaper to-the-trade showroom and he says they sell a LOT of wall to wall carpet, and their lower end of wall to wall is $75 a square yard, and their higher end goes up into hundreds of dollars a square yard. Some of this goes over concrete floors and some of it over hardwood.

So I really think it's only the middle classes, in some regions more than others who have decided wall to wall carpet is a gross health hazard, because there seem to be plenty of people spending thousands of dollars to carpet a single room.

For me it would depend on where I lived. There are parts of the country where I would not want carpet. Where I am now, I like wall to wall in the bedrooms. However, the bases of my beds are plinths that are scribed to the floor so there is no wide open under the bed area to get dusty or dirty. One bedroom has site finished wood, one has and will have wall to wall (wool). We also vacuum every couple of days. And we don't wear outside shoes in the bedrooms or upstairs bathrooms.

If they made plain vinyl that looks like nothing in particular instead of trying to look like wood or stone, that's what I'd have in the kitchen.

Window treatments here tend to be wood blinds, plantation shutters and lots of bedraggled skimpy looking "panels". I like traditional smaller vaned shutters or drapes, personally. Most drapery now is an expensive proposition though.

Of course choices are regional. Climate. Availability of materials. Light.

All my childhood I lived with parquet because there are many forests where I lived:) No problem with water, great soil for vegetation..you have wood. No, not cold..not where we lived. Rugs got used a lot though by some-in winter only..in summer, you roll them up. There was also a big tradition to put rugs on the wall as well. We didn't do it in our place but was popular.

(of course when building new buildings they'd try to save and put some linoleum in. In eighties)

When we moved to Meditterranean floors were almost exclusively tiles since wood is crazily expensive in Israel. There are very few forests, and many of them were planted in 20 th century, very lovingly..it's a land of artificial arrigation, and no, it'd be very expensive to put in wood. But. Abundance of stone. Limestone, marble. It's also cool to touch -which is good when the weather is hot/warm for 9 months a year(awfully cold the remaining 3 months lol). So thats what you're going to have-or porcelain version of it.

(if you fall on stone stairs it's very painful though..))

The countertops will be marble or limestone too(or Quartz now, I don't know) ..not a granite because why granite if granite is quarried much more up North? You have marble-you use marble.

Of course there has been and is and will be influence between the regions. I love reading about it all..there's a reason why Chinoiserie became so popular in Sweden at some point, and how Finland design motives remind Russia, but Denmark takes more from Germany and France..there's a reason for Spanish Revival to bloom in California and some other southern states..there's a reason Arts and Crafts appeared when they appeared..there's a reason why suddenly Tel Aviv has the biggest number of Bauhaus architecture ..it's all extremely interesting, and yes, it's steeped in tradition based on geography and climate and history..house is where the history ends.

But the successful interregional influence will always be successful when it makes the most sense in the given house in a given location. If it has nothing to lean on it'll fade.

That's why I frankly get upset a bit with so many "dated" and "timeless" and "people get tired of pattern" or "people get tired of color"-no it's not universal..it will depend. There are plenty places on Earth (including ones I lived too)that are very colorful and nobody gets tired. In Granada, Nicaragua, they repaint their houses every year(New Years tradition) because they're not allowed to change the architecture at all(since Granada is considered the oldest city on the continent, they're very protective of their architecture. ). And I can name you tens of patterns nobody tires of for centuries. Hundreds if I was more educated.

The only thing truly timeless, is our strive to be it:)

I’ve always lived in older homes and the floors have always been wood except for kitchens and bathrooms. I’m in New England and never found the wood floors to be cold. Area rugs soften things up a bit. Wall to wall carpet always seems dirty to me unless it’s brand new.

Growing up in my region in the South, houses had wood floors and linoleum in the kitchens and baths. Carpet was considered a luxury and I can remember, as a teenager, when my mom covered all the wood floors with carpet because everyone was doing it.

I've never had a water spot/scratches on the oak floors like my mother had on her oak floors. The difference is, hers were finished with wax, not sealed like I've had done. I also remember the huge chore of my father waxing and buffing those oak floors, which had no stain, BTW.

My poodle runs and plays on my wood floors all day long -- no scratches. That said, she is groomed every 5-6 weeks and her nails are trimmed at that time. In my previous home, my stepson's Labradoodle, without trimmed nails, put some scratches in my foyer when she went sliding after a toy.

I'm not a fan of carpet because it doesn't hold up as well as wood, and I have dust allergies. I also prefer the look of carpet and in my climate, the wood rarely feels cold, as it might in the colder states.

Tile gets cold here and I have heated tile in my master bath. Like Allison, I find it difficult to stand on tile in the kitchen, so I've had hardwood floors in all kitchens in the four houses I've built/renovated since 1990. No regrets.

Yes -- I think carpet versus wood is also a regional thing.